Brain Health, Memory Loss & Alzheimer's

As you may have read elsewhere, November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. But surely, the public is already well aware of this horrible disease. After all, Alzheimer’s has directly affected approximately 1 in every 2 families and the others must have certainly noted its prominent coverage in the news. We don’t really need more awareness, right? Wrong. Some of the information below may surprise you. That is to say, it is information about which you are not presently aware....Read entire article »

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There has been ongoing debate between the advocates for knowing one's genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease and those who think the information isat best—useless, and—at worst—possibly harmful and causing emotional distress. There has been particularly vigorous debate regarding genetic information and the APOe4 allele that is present in about 15 percent of the general population and in about a half of all people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The Argument: Those in Favor of Knowing Genetic Risk The advocates for...Read entire article »

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We all know about the obvious problems associated with Alzheimer's disease—but very few people know that late diagnosis is one of the biggest issues facing the public today. The media carries daily stories about the aging of the population structure (nearly 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day) and about how current medications seem to be minimally efficacious against this poorly understood disease. Our inability to treat a disease that affects a burgeoning elderly population also makes for dire...Read entire article »

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People are always asking when mild cognitive impairment turns into Alzheimer's disease. I commonly encounter this question in the press, I hear it discussed at conferences, and physicians wrestle with it regularly. Despite the centrality of this question in so many forums of cognitive health, it is a nonsensical inquiry with inherent flaws. Additionally, it propagates confusion that I want to clarify today. There are many medical conditions that can cause a subtle cognitive deficit. Pondering whether or not...Read entire article »

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"What is normal memory loss?" is a question that is posed, in some form or another, uncountable times per day by an aging public that is beginning to worry about the looming specter of Alzheimer's disease. The question of what constitutes normal memory loss is also carried in the press quite frequently. The published answers range from reasonably constructive to dangerously misleading. Here is a helpful perspective. Understanding Memory Issues Most of the time, when a person past the...Read entire article »

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